• Yanks win; Red Sox lose Middlebrooks
    August 12,2012
     
    THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

    TORONTO — Ivan Nova snapped a five-start winless streak, Casey McGehee hit a three-run home run and the New York Yankees won their fourth straight game Saturday, beating the Toronto Blue Jays 5-2.

    Derek Jeter had two hits, boosting his AL-leading total to 150 and joining Hank Aaron as the only players to record 17 straight seasons with at least 150 hits.

    Rajai Davis had two hits and scored twice but it wasn’t enough as slumping Toronto suffered its fifth consecutive defeat and its 11th loss in 13 games.

    Nova came in 0-3 with an 8.36 ERA in five starts since winning at Boston on July 8, but was sharp against an injury-depleted Blue Jays lineup, setting down the first nine batters in order before Davis singled to open the fourth.

    Davis took second on a balk and scored on a one-out single by Edwin Encarnacion. A hit batter put Blue Jays at first and second, but Nova escaped further damage by fanning David Cooper and getting Moises Sierra to ground out.

    Nova (11-6) allowed two runs and five hits in 7 1-3 innings. He walked one and struck out 10.

    David Robertson replaced Nova after Edwin Encarnacion’s RBI single in the eighth and got pinch hitter Omar Vizquel to ground into an inning-ending double play.

    Rafael Soriano closed it out in the ninth for his 28th save in 30 chances.

    New York managed just Jeter’s infield single in the first three innings against Blue Jays left-hander Aaron Laffey, but broke through with a four-run fourth, highlighted by McGehee’s first home run as a Yankee.

    Mark Teixeira scored from second on Jayson Nix’s single to left and McGehee followed with a drive into the second deck in left-center. McGehee hit eight home runs with Pittsburgh before being traded to New York last month.

    The Yankees tacked on one more in the sixth when McGehee hit a one-out double and scored on Jeter’s ground-rule double to right-center.

    Laffey (3-3) had won three of his previous five starts but gave up five runs and seven hits in 5 2-3 innings. He walked a season-high four and struck out two.

    Plate umpire and crew chief Jim Joyce warned Nova and both benches after Escobar was hit on the left elbow by a pitch in the sixth, the second straight at-bat he was hit. New York’s Curtis Granderson was hit by a pitch from Laffey in the second.

    Escobar, who suffered a sore left elbow, remained in the game to play defense for the next two innings but was replaced by Vizquel when his spot came up again in the eighth.

    NOTES: Yankees left-hander CC Sabathia has been placed on the 15-day disabled list with inflammation and pain in his elbow.Manager Joe Girardi announced the decision after New York beat the Blue Jays Saturday for their fourth straight win. Neither a corresponding roster move, nor a starter for Monday’s game against Texas, has been announced. Sabathia, 12-3 with a 3.56 ERA, missed 18 games earlier this season with a strained left groin.Girardi said Sabathia, the 2007 AL Cy Young award winner, felt stiff after his Aug. 3 start against Seattle but an MRI showed nothing. Sabathia felt stiff again after pitching at Detroit on Aug. 8. He threw on flat ground Friday rather than throwing his regular bullpen session. ... Blue Jays OF Colby Rasmus was held out of the starting lineup after leaving Friday’s game with tightness in his right groin. ... New York OF Ichiro Suzuki was held out of the starting lineup but came on defensively in the ninth. ... Attendance was 45,582, Toronto’s third sellout of the season.



    Sox third baseman

    breaks his wrist

    CLEVELAND — Will Middlebrooks’ fine rookie season for the Boston Red Sox is over.

    The third baseman was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a broken right wrist Saturday and Danny Valencia recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket.

    Pedro Ciriaco was in manager Bobby Valentine’s lineup as the third baseman, hitting ninth. Valencia, acquired in a trade from Minnesota on Sunday, was expected to arrive at about the same time as Boston’s scheduled 6:05 p.m. start against the Cleveland Indians.

    Middlebrooks, hitting .288 with 15 homers and 54 RBIs in 75 games, was hit by a pitch in the ninth inning Friday night.

    He is the 25th Red Sox player to go on the disabled list in 29 separate stints this year.
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